ST HELENS town centre is to finally see two long-awaited developments come to fruition in the next 18 months.
Building work has begun on the £30m West Point leisure scheme, while infrastructure work is under way in preparation for the construction of the £44m rugby league stadium project.
West Point, by Grantmaster Developments, first received planning permission in 2004.
The scheme includes a 64-bedroom Travelodge, 111 apartments, a ten-pin bowling alley, shops, restaurants and bars.
Contracts were exchanged in early 2008 with Travelodge and Tenpin Bowling, which is to operate a 20,000 sq ft bowling alley, and work was meant to be completed last year – but the project was put on hold.
Construction of the Travelodge has now begun, with completion scheduled for spring 2011, while the development’s second phase, including the bowling alley and four restaurant/bar units, is due to start in August.
Less than a mile along the St Helens Linkway, infrastructure work is taking place on the site of the new St Helens rugby league stadium, which will be alongside a Tesco supermarket.
The original plan for a stadium floundered a decade ago and revised plans were launched in June, 2007, with a scheduled opening date of 2010.
Despite avoiding a public inquiry, the project has been delayed and a contractor has not yet been appointed to build the 17,980-capacity stadium.
St Helens Rugby League Club has already committed to move out of its Knowsley Road stadium at the end of this season for housebuilder Taylor Wimpey to take vacant possession of the site, where it will build 100 houses and 90 apartments.
While the club had hoped for the fixture list to be skewed towards playing mostly away games at the start of the season, the delays to the stadium mean this won’t be possible.
With the rugby league season running from February to the start of October, it is almost certain the club will play the entire 2011 season “on the road”.
The club has an agreement to play at Stobart Stadium Halton, the home of Widnes Vikings which is owned by Halton Borough Council, for the first four months of the season. Although it has not yet publicly accepted that its target date of moving in to the new stadium, of May, 2011, is now unattainable – the stadium is expected to take 60 weeks to build – the club is also considering playing games at Leigh Sports Village and exploring the possibility of using one of Merseyside’s football stadia while it waits for its new home to be completed.
